Creamy

Emma has left me. She has abandoned San Francisco for snowier pastures on the other side of this far too wide country. I was able to break free from the grief stage of grief to which I have been clinging the night before her departure, just long enough to craft a Boston Cream Pie Cake in honor of her new home.

Not being familiar with Boston Cream Pie made this undertaking minorly overwhelming. Fortunately, I had the help of Matt, Renato, and, most importantly, Sophie, without whom I would never have managed get the eggs separated and the cake decorated (she is also responsible for the photos in this post).

All struggles and mishaps aside, this baking adventure was nothing less than blood-pressure raising (in a good way). And well worthwhile for the joy of sharing it with Miss Emmsicle.

Emma is Moving to Boston Cream Pie Cake

adapted from Baked Explorations

cake part:

* 1 3/4 cups flour

* 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

* 3/4 tsp salt

* 6 tbsp unsalted butter

* 3/4 cup milk

* 4 eggs

* 1 1/4 cup sugar

* 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

pastry cream part:

* 7 eggs yolks

* 3/4 cup sugar

* 1/4 tsp salt

* 1/3 cup cornstarch

* 3 cups whole milk

* 3 tbsp butter

* 1 tbsp vanilla

* 2 tbsp rum (they called for light rum, but I only had dark so I used that)

* 6 oz dark chocolate (I used semi-sweet chocolate chips)

glaze part:

* 5 oz dark chocolate (or the rest of the bag of chocolate chips, minus the handful you eat straight)

* 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

* 1/4 cup sugar

* 1/4 cup heavy cream

* 1/4 cup light corn syrup (I will reiterate that expired corn syrup is completely acceptable)

* pinch salt

* 1/2 tsp vanilla

* 1 1/2 tbsp butter

First, read the entire recipe. Also, I recommend not starting on the cream filling until the cake is out of the oven. If you don't have that kind of time, though, just make sure to start on the filling as soon as the cake is in the oven to allow for sufficient cream-making time.

Cake part:

Preheat oven to 325˚ F. Grease two cake pans.

Mix flour, salt, and baking powder together in a bowl.

Put the butter and milk in a small saucepan and heat on low until butter is just melted. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, use electric beaters (or a kitchenaid if you are lucky enough to possess one) to beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla. Beat for about 5 minutes until volume triples. Pour 1/3 of the flour mixture over the mixture. Fold into the mixture. Add the remaining flour and fold it all in. Pour in the warm milk/butter and gently fold in until just mixed. Pour the batter into the two cake pans.

Note: At this stage the Baked recipe led me well astray. It said to bake for 20-25 minutes, insisting that the cakes might still wobble slightly when done. I took them out after 25 minutes and made the genius decision to turn one onto a cooling rack. Next thing I knew, the cake top had plunged through the bars on the rack and onto the counter. Yes. The entire center of the cake was still raw. I had suspected as much based on the extreme paleness of the cake and the somewhat excessive wobbling, but I had developed a strong trust of Baked Explorations. Never again. I managed to scoop the cake guts back into the rest of the cake. Sophie convinced me to let the cakes bake for longer, rather than simply leaving part of it raw.

The moral of the story is: bake for at least 25 minutes, but probably more like 35. Cool the cakes on a rack.

Pastry Cream part:

Whisk the egg yolks, half of the sugar (1/4 cup +2 tbsp), salt, and cornstarch in a large bowl. In a med-large saucepan, mix the milk and the rest of the sugar over medium heat. Stir until the mixture boils. Remove from heat. Pour 1/3 of the mixture into the bowl with the eggs, etc, whisking constantly. Pour this mixture back into the saucepan, increase the heat, and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Boil for 2 minutes. The mixture will thicken. (The recipe instructs pushing the custard through a fine-mesh sieve before proceeding, but for many reasons, which may or may not be obvious, I did not do this.) Stir in butter, vanilla and rum.

Here I again took my English major speed-reading skills one step too far; I failed to read the part where you reserve 1/3 of the pastry cream for a plain custard layer. All this meant, though, was that the final cake was extra chocolatey. Cry about it.

Add the chocolate chips to the warm pastry cream and mix until combined. Let cool for about 15 minutes. Place a layer of plastic wrap on top of the custard and refrigerate (4 hours to overnight was recommended. I did closer to 1/2 hour, but what did you expect).

Glaze part:

Melt the chocolate and cocoa powder in a double boiler.

Combine sugar, cream, corn syrup, salt and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Warm over low heat. When sugar has dissolved, increase heat to medium. Simmer while stirring about 4 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Whisk in the vanilla and butter. Add the melted chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Set aside.

Assembly part:

Cut the cakes in half using a serrated knife. Place one layer on a plate. Scoop 1/3 (or slightly less in the interest of having some custard left over) of the pastry cream on top of cake. Cover the cream with another layer of cake. Repeat until final cake layer is on top.

Pour the chocolate glaze on top. Let the glaze pour down the sides. Use a spoon or butter knife to ensure that entire cake gets covered in glaze.

This last ditch effort to persuade Emma not to move (cake bribery - it works sometimes) ultimately backfired. Instead of showing her a preview of all the other delicious things I would make her if she stayed, she decided she would rather live in the city that actually knows how to make such a spectacular dessert. Fair enough, I suppose.